7 juicy facts about cranberries

Monday

Nov 6, 2017 at 10:35 AMNov 6, 2017 at 11:00 AM

Alice Coyle acoyle@wickedlocal.com @accoyleWL

They’re great with turkey and stuffing, baked in your morning muffin or poured as a delicious and healthy juice. A fixin’ fixture on Thanksgiving tables or strung as Christmas garland, the jolly, red cranberry takes center stage at holiday time. Here are seven more juicy facts about the tart and tasty cranberry.

1. Home-grown. The cranberry is one of only three fruits native to North America. The others are the blueberry and Concord grape.

2. Naming rights. The Cape Cod Pequots and Leni-Lenape tribes of New Jersey called them “ibimi” (bitter berry). But it was Dutch and German settlers that named the fruit “crane berry” (later known as cranberry) because its flower resembled the head and bill of a crane.

3. Berry many uses. Native Americans used cranberries for several purposes including curing meat, dying fabric and healing wounds. Pemmican -- a Native American recipe mixing mashed cranberries and deer meat -- was essentially the first “energy bar.” The fruit’s acidity was a natural preservative and prevented bacteria, providing long-lasting sustenance.

4. Best grown in cool climates and sandy soils. First cultivated in 1816 on Cape Cod and widely grown in Southeastern Massachusetts, cranberries are also produced in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington. Since 1994, the cranberry has been the official berry of Massachusetts, and in 2003 became the official state fruit of Wisconsin, which is now the largest producer of cranberries in the United States.

5. Eat ‘em for the health of it. With a high vitamin C content, cranberries were stored and consumed on long sea voyages to help prevent scurvy. Because they prevent bacteria, cranberries can help curb plaque buildup on teeth which can lead to cavities and gum disease, and the antioxidants and phytonutrients in them have many other health benefits.

6. Musical fruit. The Cranberries became the name of a popular alternative rock band formed in Limerick, Ireland in 1989. The band, featuring vocalist Dolores O’Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler, originally called itself The Cranberry Saw Us (cranberry sauce, if said quickly). It’s possible “cranberry sauce” was in reference to the words John Lennon said he actually spoke during the fade out of the song “Strawberry Fields Forever,” rather than “I’m very bored” or “I buried Paul.”

7. Cranberries by the numbers. Americans put away some 400 million pounds of cranberries each year. About 80 million pounds — or 20 percent — are gobbled up during Thanksgiving week. There are 200 cranberries used in every can of cranberry sauce, 440 cranberries in a one-pound bag and 4,400 cranberries in one gallon of juice. Seven of 10 cranberries sold in the world today come from Ocean Spray, a grower cooperative started in 1930 and based in Lakeville/Middeborough, Massachusetts.

Thanksgiving menu additions

Just in time for your holiday feast, here are three, easy-to-make cranberry recipes. For dozens more delicious cranberry creations visit the Ocean Spray website www.oceanspray.com.